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Which CF to IDE interface to buy?

J

JT64

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
402
Location
Sweden
I found this nethandler offering different CF to IDE interfaces, i was thinking to buy two. One for my new PC and one for my old PC-XT.

Which ones should i chose?

http://www.kabelpiraten.se/catalog/index.php?cPath=27&osCsid=63bb375dd5a82db8818167499c3a4559

If any of you guys have dos and (vintage apps) on a compact flash could you please make an image and torrent it or somehow exchange it with me.

Unfortunatly all my DOS floppies and programs went to the yunkyard a long time ago. And since my new computer lacks floppy reader i am kind of stuck and can not use floppy images.

If you also have network support for generic network cards or serial/parallell support for shares, i would much grateful.

JT
 
I think you should get this model: CF-IDE 94V1

I use this one on my XT. I really like it, because having your CF card accessible from the back of the machine makes file transfers very simple. I can just take it and plug it directly into my laptop.
 
JT64: I presume you live in Sweden? I agree with wmmullaney, generic CF interfaces are rather dirt cheap on eBay, if you buy from a Chinese, Taiwanese etc seller. Possibly with the recent USD raise, the prices on the web page you mention are closer to the Chinese prices.

As for different models, it mostly seems to be a choice whether you want the IDE connector horizontal or vertical. The 44 pin ones are for 2.5" HDD systems, e.g. laptops.
 
I always have problems with the descriptlon of adaptors. There should be a hierarchy from the host machine to the peripheral device.

For example in many ads for GPS receivers the many adaptors offered
are as "Serial to USB" , which are actually USB to serial. If your computer has no support for USB, of course it is meaningless. The peripheral is a serial device powered by the USB on the motherboard. Similarly I am confounded by the description of the title of this thread.

In the device offered by the URL it's throwaway connection offering is totally vague which is so common in Taiwan product descriptions.

"Simply slide a CF card into the adapter and plug into a device with a PCMCIA slot, and then feel free to transfer photos, data, etc"

Exactly how does one "simply plug into a device wth a PCMCIA slot" ? . No mention that the adaptor might have a PCMCIA compatible
edge-card on the other end. And a computer which has a PCMCIA enabled recepticle in which one could plug the adaptor.

But of course this is the unfamiliarity of language by the ill-paid documentors. Yet the same errors are made by first-language tech documentors similarily ill-paid in Ist-world englsh-language countries. No wonder there are so many support sites (badly-attended) by the major IT companies.

And the executives of these same predatory corporatons actually expect their users to support them in their endeavors to wipe out piracy in order to increase profits from unwary consumers. Give the IT consumer non-beta products and perhaps their attitude might change.
Neither one is lkely to happen tho, but at least we should expect to have our technology references understandable.

Perhaps this diatribe contributes nothng to the problem posted.

Lawrence
 
So, let me get this straight. CF to IDE. You simply connect one end of a ribbon cable to the MB or card IDE riser and the other end to this interface which has a CF card in it. With DOS I can then fdisk, format, and sys this as if it was a disk? That's really cool ... or do I misunderstand something?
 
Memory adressing to ATA adressing (CF to IDE)

Memory adressing to ATA adressing (CF to IDE)

Memory adressing to ATA adressing (CF to IDE)

Just bought two CF-IDE adapters one with double interfacemaster/slave, i read that the CF II interface have a max transfer speed of 16 MB per second that sounds decent to me.

However how fast is the old ATA controllers, how fast can i read and write to the virtual ATA device(compact flash card). Maybe the CF adapter itself is slow. And howabout searching adresses?

What speed do the original PC-XT memories read and write with, it probably depend on the chunk size but let us say i write a program to write 32 times 512 KB to the memory (16 MB), how long would it take. And what about reading and searching?

I was thinking in the line of writing a program (hook or wrapper) in DOS to let dos think that the computer have XMS and EMS. And create a file on the CF memory to act as the memory extension, and another file with translation table between memory adresses and the ATA adresses, i guess it use sectors cylinders somehow.

Would this be a totally impossible project, a freaking slow memory or somehow actually useful memory extension?

JT
 
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